Have you heard about the latest mindfulness trend, color walks? It’s the practice of choosing a color, going for a walk, and seeing how many things you can spot with that color along the way.
“Color walks, an exercise where people try to find objects in a certain color while on the go, are rising in popularity on social media — and experts say the simple practice can have profound effects on mindfulness and health,” says a recent TODAY segment on “the new trend combining exercise and mindfulness.”
Another article, by Khuyen Dinh in Well + Good, says: “I Tried Social Media’s Viral Color Walk Trend and Felt Like a Little Kid Again.”
“This is one of the first TikTok trends I can get behind — it makes perfect sense,” clinical psychologist Supatra Tovar, PsyD, says in the article. “What it actually does, which is beautiful, is keep your mind completely on the present moment.”
A color walk is a form of walking meditation like the “sense and savor” walk I teach, where you go for a walk and consciously use all five senses — only with a color walk, you just use your eyeballs to seek a single color. Both focus your attention and help put you completely in the moment, so you are not ruminating or worrying.
Looking for that splash of yellow, red, or blue keeps you from going over your to-do list in your mind (“What am I going to cook for dinner?”), rehashing a conversation that bothered you, or worrying about the future. It doesn’t even matter if you don’t find that many things with the color you’re looking for — the simple act of searching helps put you in a place of mindful calm.
I just got back from a groovy weekend event sponsored by The Conference for Consciousness & Human Evolution. It was all about the quantum field and energy and the fact that we all have divinity inside us — and that the stories we tell ourselves actually change us on a physiological and cellular level.
One presenter talked about her magical near-death experience. She was eating an anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer diet, taking supplements and doing all these things because she was afraid of getting cancer, and then she got cancer. She didn’t say this, but what I gleaned from her talk was doing all those things in love for your wellness is different than doing them out of fear for your illness.
I went to five sessions over the course of the weekend, and the whole takeaway for me was embodied in the saying: change your story, change your life. It’s the same thing people have been saying for 40 years, maybe longer, about living in love vs. fear and the difference that makes.
I’ve been teaching this for years: where attention goes, energy flows, and neural networks grow.
It’s nothing new, and yet they had all these people, many of them scientists, saying yes, you can change the physiology of your brain when you look at life that way, live your life that way, and interact with other people that way. It’s a matter of learning to focus on love rather than fear.
That’s where color walks, sense and savor walks, and other mindful practices help. They help us learn to direct our focus and attention where we want it, rather than letting our monkey brain run wild and take us down a rabbit hole of fear, worry or rumination.
So give this new color walk trend a try. It’s going to be healthy because you’re outside walking, and you’re giving your brain a task that’s going to prevent it from ruminating and worrying. That’s something we can all use, with natural disasters like the fires in Southern California, and the worry many people feel over what’s going on with the new administration.
If it’s too cold outside to go for a walk, you can still practice mindfulness! Try listening to my podcast, Balanced Mind With Julie Potiker, with a blanket around your shoulders, cozy socks on your feet and a warm mug of tea. Or like me, maybe you’d like to put on your favorite music as you cook up something delicious in your kitchen.
Color walking is just one tool you can add to your mindfulness toolbox to use when you need it. These are all things we can do to feel joy, happiness, and peace, and in doing, choose love over fear.
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